It’s time to wrap up yet another year of bugs, blue screens, diagnostic techniques, and troubleshooting topics. I’d like to finish the year on a positive note, and to that end, I'll share with you the contents of an email message I received a few days ago. The message describes a novel and appealing alternative to the cryptic error messages we receive every day—one that delivers bad news with poetry and style. The introduction that accompanied this message claims that technology folks in Japan have replaced Windows’ vague and, oftentimes, downright ugly errors with haiku messages that precisely describe the situation.

For those of you who've forgotten your high school English lessons, the rules for composing haiku are strict and thus appeal to techies who like order in the universe. Each poem has 17 syllables: The first line has five, the second line has seven, and the third line has five. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the contrast between the graceful, empathetic, mystical haiku messages and the harsh, tech-speak Windows versions, as Table 1 lists. I’d opt for the haiku version; nothing like a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. Happy holidays to all!